Well, we can't exactly say his baptism went off without a hitch...but we can say that it'll certainly be one that we'll remember for a long time to come!
As most of you know, little Nico's Baptism was yesterday. Unfortunately, it also come with about 6+ inches of snow and muck too! The actual baptism itself went great! It all went very smooth and he slept through the entire thing! When we all finally made it back to the house, we just made best of the situation at hand and had A TON to eat and drink! Since we were initially planning for 45+ people, I think we'll probably be eating Ridgwell's for breakfast, lunch and dinner like this entire week! Actually come to think of it, that's not such a bad thing, is it? I could certainly think of worse!;)
In all seriousness, thank you to all who braved the dangerous conditions and journeyed out to see the little guy receive the Sacrament of Baptism. But for those of you who couldn't make it, we completely understand. Enjoy the pics and I'm sure we'll all see each other again soon!
Please bare with us as we update our blog. We're about 80% complete. We will hopefully have it completed by first thing Monday morning. I just need to teach myself xml first!;)
As I mentioned in my last post, I've been slightly obsessed with the latest buzz going around Falls Church of a new City Center. Up until recently, downtown Falls Church has been a bit of a dump. There's just not much going on besides a few choice restaurants, bars, The State Theater and a bunch of outdated rundown office buildings. However, there has recently been a good amount of development happening further west on Rt. 7 including: The Byron, The Read Building and The Spectrum. All of which show much promise bringing much needed high end retail, restaurant and class A office space and from what I hear, beautiful condos.
There's also another development currently under construction which peaks my interest even more, Pearson Square located on South Maple Avenue, only a rocks throw from our new house. From what I've read, it sounds like it's going to deliver a much needed boost to the surrounding downtown area. It will include 230 condos, 75,000 sq.ft. of Class A office space and 25,400 of high quality retail and restaurant space. The retail space will focus on the arts and feature local visual and performing artists. Sounds great, doesn't it? There's already been a bit of development that's gone up recently surrounding Maple Ave. including a new Elevation Burger(highly recommend), a spa and a personal trainer/gym type of a thing. This looks to be the first of many steps that The City of FC's taking to turn the whole downtown area around.
As you can see from the pic I posted of the proposed city center, they're initially looking to target roughly a 6 square block area downtown. However, this past December, “The Atlantic Realty Companies (ARC) submitted an application to the City for a mixed-use development project on approximately five acres of land located on the south side of West Broad Street (Route 7), east of the post office, and in the 200 block of South Maple Avenue—the current site of Bowl America. ARC’s proposal will bring elements the City has been striving for in its downtown commercial district for years, including retail, residential housing, office space, and a hotel. The plan includes a Harris Teeter grocery store; more than 100,000 square feet of new office space on Broad Street; a 180-room hotel; approximately 500 residential apartments that include affordable housing; 67 condominiums structured as age-restricted housing; a new Bowl America bowling facility; and about 1,500 spaces of structured parking, primarily underground. Roughly 40 percent of this phase of City Center will be commercial, 60 percent residential.” Click here for a rendered drawing. WAAAWHOO!!! More to come....
Yes, you read the title right! And no, this is not an old post from a couple of years back. We're really moving......yes again! We're happily staying in Falls Church, only this time, we were FINALLY able to find something in the actual City of Falls Church which we're really happy about. "Why? Why, are you moving AGAIN? You JUST bought that house!" I know, Dad, I know. You're totally right; we haven't even lived in this house for two years yet! However, with the recent addition to the family(Baby Nico), a new nanny and my folks staying for extended visits, we quickly realized that we needed more space, fast.
So over the last several years we've moved....well...several times. And the funny thing is, all three have been within like a mile of each other! This one will hopefully be "the one" for a while....well at least longer than two years!;) We’re really psyched about being in the City of FC. What a difference a little line in the sand can make! Did you know that the City of Falls Church became an independent City in 1948 led by parents determined to improve the quality of local schools? Well now you do! Our local high school, George Mason, is ranked #41 nationally, not too shabby! It's #3 in VA and I’m not too sure where the #2 school is....where's berryville? The #1 Va school is some sort of magnet school, so that doesn't count. They have some sort of wacky lottery to enroll! Stupid nerds. Anyway, another cool thing is that the elementary school is at the end of the street! So that'll make it really easy to get Livvy to and from and a great place to play on the weekends. Also, there’s a lot going on blocks away at the “FC City Center”. I’ll report on that in future posts. It’s quickly become a small obsession of mine! And I’ve recently come to find that part of it involves…..The Lessard Group, that’s right Joe. We’re gonna need to talk.
Anyway, I'll post more pics as construction continues and of course upon completion. Keep in mind there's still a lot that needs to be done to the exterior, the weather has not been too cooperative as of late! But some additions include, mahogany front porch and steps with detailed craftsman style mill and lattice work, stone along the front and surroundings as well as the garage entry and up the drive, sod, trees and landscaping and ah yes, a garage door too;)